Oct 30 2008
Sounds like the plan for redevelopment of the Station North Area is getting more detailed and closer to coming to fruition. This is remarkable, considering ideas floated about this area not more than a year ago seemed more like a pipe dream than a plan. Let’s hope these ideas continue to develop. Check it out:
Oct 27 2008
If you haven’t been to Dogwood Restaurant in Hampden yet, you really need to go. The food is unbelievable, mostly locally grown, and the restaurant runs a non-profit program to help train former homeless people and drug addicts in the restaurant industry to help them get back on their feet. So you can eat delicious food, be environmentally friendly, and feel good about yourself while doing it.
Well if you can’t make it up to Hampden, but you work downtown, you’re in luck. Dogwood will be opening a deli in the Woman’s Industrial Exchange Tea Room (333 N Charles St. just north of downtown). Although it won’t be serving dinner like the main restaurant in Hampden, the new location will initially be open for breakfast and lunch.
From the Woman’s Industrial Exchange Website:
The Dogwood Café is planning to open on November 1, in our historic tea room. Starting out with a simple grab-and-go format, with a juice and smoothie bar, Dogwood Cafe will grow into a full service, seated lunchroom by spring of 2009. The Dogwood Cafe is a sister venture of award-winning Dogwood Restaurant in Hampden, which is owned by Galen and Bridget Sampson. Dogwood is “neighborhood gourmet,” using as much local and organic product as possible, with creative, but down-to-earth food—prepared to be enjoyed and shared every day.
Oct 20 2008
Panera Bread opened their newest Baltimore City Location recently in the Brewers Hill neighborhood. The new store is located in the shopping center at the corner of Boston and Conkling Streets next to the Five Guys, Dogma, and the new Pasta Mista.
With the opening of this Panera, I began to think to myself whether or not this is a good thing for Baltimore or not. Don’t get me wrong, I think Panera is delicious. But one of Baltimore’s charms of course are the independent coffee shops, the small bookstores, cozy restaurants, dirty corner bars, etc. Panera is shiny, clean, and…well…suburban.
On the other hand Panera’s expansion into Baltimore City shows a significant investment of money and faith in the general retail strength of the area. Remember when O’Malley was at the retail convention in Vegas and everyone kept asking him how many Starbucks we had (I think we only had like 2 at the time…now we have about a dozen). Panera will likely be followed by other chains, then fancier chains, then maybe we’ll get one of those department stores that many have been coveting. People will follow too…maybe more suburbanites will consider moving to the city…comforted by the fact that familiar places are nearby.
Ultimately the expansions of chains in the city is an inevitable effect of its growth at the expense of independent stores. Unfortunately in today’s world growth has been synonymous with big business. Perhaps with the recent economic collapse that will change…but I won’t hold my breath.
What I will say is that some mornings I’ll probably be down at Panera…in line for one of those Cinnamon Crunch Bagels with Hazelnut cream cheese…They’re incredible.
Oct 20 2008
Hull Street Mews is a cool looking new townhome cluster in Locust Point. It’s coincidentally located across the street from the popular Hull Street Blues restaurant and bar. The design the builder used for the back of the homes looks really nice, and forms a sort of courtyard behind the two sets of houses. Is the starting price too high for this market?
Oct 16 2008
I managed to make it over to the Hudson Street Stackhouse which opened a few months ago at 2624 Hudson Street across from the Safeway in Canton. The bar occupies the spot formerly occupied by the Hudson Street Cafe. The space is noticeably different. As I recall, Hudson Street Cafe had a bar that was like an island in the middle, and the back was kind of a dark, unfinished area with a pool table. The Stackhouse is much brighter and completely remodeled. The bar has pushed off to one side, which allows more room for tables, but doesn’t sacrifice space for barstools. When it first opened, the Stackhouse only served drinks, but now the kitchen is up and running.
The bar kind of reminded me of a cross between two other Canton bars… Relaxed, casual, and with a good beer selection like Mahaffeys…but a bit more spiffed up, bigger, and cleaner like Saute. The beer list wasn’t quite as extensive as Mahaffeys or Max’s, but still impressive with a bunch of beers on tap. The menu consisted of mostly upscale bar food ranging from about $5 to $15. The buffalo wings were about 7 bucks and were delicious. I also had a barbecue chicken sandwich with bacon on a fresh baked bun for 8 bucks. It was delicious. I noticed that the menu had a crabcake sandwich and a New York strip steak sandwich special which were both around $13 to $15.
The only glitch while we were there was that there was no server. I’m not sure whether he/she didn’t show up, or if there just isn’t any table service, but it was kind of awkward having to go up to the bar to order food and then have the chef bring it out for you. However, by the end of the evening, the bartender was coming around to the tables to check if people needed any refills…maybe she got the hint. I imagine these are the kind of details that they will hopefully work out over time.
The place was pretty busy for a weeknight, leaving me hopeful that they’ll be another strong neighborhood restaurant/bar nearby. With all this food and beer around, I might never need to go to the grocery or liquor store again.
Oct 16 2008
Maryland sex offenders have begun receiving paper pumpkin signs that read “No candy at this residence,” to place on their front doors on Halloween or face a parole violation. Seems like a great idea, but will it actually be enforced? Will there be a pumpkin sign patrol?
Mischievous kids might take this one of two ways. They will know about the signs and stay away from these residences. Or they will take this as the ultimate “Halloween Grinch” move , and target the house for egging, toilet paper, or pumpkin smashing. Or maybe they’ll do that whether they know about the sign or not. Not that anyone here condones that. So if your new neighbor shows up with one of these signs on their door on Halloween, it might be time to sell.
Check out the story on WBALTV.com - http://www.wbaltv.com/cnn-news/17721033/detail.html
Perhaps, a bright cartoon pumpkin is not the best deterrent on Halloween. Especially for kids who can’t read. Howard Stern picked up the story on his radio show and joked that the sign should contain a picture of broccoli. It might look something like this:
Oct 14 2008
Baltimore City recently announced it would fund a new dog park in Locust Point’s Latrobe Park. Read more about this in the Locust Point Civic Association’s October Newsletter. The park is the result of a lot of hard work by a group of dedicated volunteer neighbors who were able to raise $20,000 through fundraisers. But it seems some Baltimore Sun readers have a problem with it. Read their comments here. Most of them probably don’t know any of the details, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from throwing in their two cents. Here’s a link to the Sun’s original story on the dog park. I’m not a dog owner, but it seems there’s definitely worse ways to spend the city’s money. What I’m not clear on is the correlation of the $20,000 mentioned in the LPCA newsletter and the $150,000 mentioned in the Sun piece. Is the $20k part of the larger sum?
Oct 13 2008
About a year ago, Baltimore officials signed a deal with Flexcar that would bring their car sharing service to Baltimore. However, when Flexcar merged with Zipcar, the deal was cancelled…and Zipcar didn’t seem to have any interest in expanding.
Therefore, Baltimore will be starting their own car sharing service. Modeled off of a program in Philadelphia called PhillyCarShare, the city will create a non-profit organization that will run like a business very similar to Zipcar.
Follow this link to see a presentation on the program and the business plan:
http://www.baltimorecity.gov/government/parking/car_sharing.php
Also visit:
http://www.baltimorecarshare.org/
Oct 13 2008
If you want to support local Baltimore businesses check out this directory of Baltimore businesses on the Buy Local Baltimore Website. - http://www.buylocalbaltimore.com/pages/bizdirCat01.html.
Oct 09 2008
The American Planning Association named Charles Village, Baltimore one of the 10 greatest neighborhoods in America for 2008.
In brief:
Recognizing the limits of their authority to address safety concerns, residents, citizen groups, and alliances from Baltimore’s Charles Village neighborhood turned to the Maryland State Assembly for help. They proposed establishing a benefits district so they could collect a small levy from property owners for additional security and sanitation services. At the time such districts had been established for U.S. downtowns and commercial zones only and not for residential areas.
The neighborhood’s proposal was approved, enabling the Charles Village Community Benefits District to be formed in 1994. Funded by a minimal levy on property values, the district has successfully managed to cut crime in half since its inception while serving as a model for three additional service districts in Baltimore.
Given the neighborhood’s strong and dedicated activist community, economic and social diversity, and memorable character enhanced by designs from the renowned Olmsted Brothers firm, APA has named Charles Village as one of 10 Great Neighborhoods in America for 2008.
Visit the website:
http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/index.htm
In addition to the Charles Village Ranking, Annapolis was ranked as having one of the 10 greatest streets in America.
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